To The People Who Feel Judged By Their Appearance

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The people who face discrimination because of the color of their skin or the burns on their skin. Who face certain assumptions because of the shape of their bodies or the disfigurement of their features. Who fight stereotypes and wrestle with demons that have nothing to do with what matters. As if character is an afterthought.

What if we had a heart mirror? What if we could see inside our hearts? Would I still go to the gym? Would we still care about the outside?

I’m reminded of the common phrase, it’s what’s on the inside that counts. How long have humans known that our physical manifestation is but a skin we wear for a few years? How long have we known we are more than our bodies?

It seems we identified this truth generations ago, but we are still evolving to understand it. The work we do to know it will trickle down to our descendants. Perhaps they will be the ones to stop throwing daggers and casting stereotypes in stone.

For this we can hope. For the human experience to blossom with connection rather than constrict with assumption and misunderstanding. Being here in conscious body and mind is the gift of the universe. We are here to live, play, fight, cry, laugh, love and die. We are hear to know beauty in its abundant forms.

Sadly, we tend to constrict beauty. Life is staggering. It’s too much for our little minds to digest. So we cut it down. We turn away from it. We don’t want to believe we are alive for a grand, great purpose. Possibility pressurizes us. If we think too hard and too big, we could explode.

But there’s a greater danger than exploding, and it’s imploding. It’s gathering every bit of oneself and winding it up tightly and not letting those bits out into the world to breathe. That’s when we start wondering–what is the point? Why the fuck am I here?

And that’s a waste of time. Like how stereotypes are a waste of beauty.

People will find a lot of reasons to ignore you. You’re female, old, young, handicapped. They will find a lot of reasons to hate you. You’re brown-skinned, fat, pretty, ugly. They will find a lot of reasons to stare. You’re disfigured, stunning, sexy, crazy.

Let them stare and ignore and hate. Let them whisper. Let them laugh. What they do has nothing to do with you, it has only to do with them.

Stand up for yourself if that empowers you. Go radio silent if that’s your good. Whatever you do, don’t let them get to you. Don’t let anyone’s judgment of your packaging scare you from showing off the juicy goodness that’s on the inside. Because there are other people out there. And most of us, we care. We want to see you.

This is day 23 of 30 consecutive days of blogging. I’m glad you’re along for the ride. If you liked this post, please share using the buttons below. If you have something to add, feel free to comment openly or anonymously.